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2022-05-15 – Easter 5th Sunday ●● Acts 14:21-27 ●● Psalm ●● Revelation 21:1-5a ●● + John 13:31-33a, 34-35 ●●
[_01_] When will I get going? Where are you going?
If you were to stand up, walk away
from an important meeting or family gathering, or leave the table during a
meal, without saying “Would you excuse me” …. “Pardon me”, people might wonder
…”where are you going?”
Even if you did “excuse yourself”,
someone still might ask or wonder “where are you going?”
[_02_] In the Gospel this Sunday, we read the observation – the report -- that “Judas Iscariot” had gone out, that had “left the table”…. “left the building”.
And, the other apostles might have
wondered where Judas was going.
But Jesus Himself is not wondering
where Judas is going. He knows. And, you and I – with the perspective of
history and many Easter Season readings of the Gospel, we know where Judas is
going.
[_03_] Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot, in the Bible, every time he's mentioned is mentioned in some negative way as the one who betrayed Jesus. And in one place, he's also described as being the one who kept the contribution money given to the disciples for charitable purposes, and that Judas used to steal money from the contributions.
Where is Judas going? He is going to
get more money.
He is going to get more money, because
he has promised to betray Jesus to the authorities who want to arrest Jesus.
[_04_] Why does Jesus Judas Iscariot betray Jesus? All we can really know for sure is from the gospel is that Judas was motivated by the money.
This is where Judas is going.
He
was willing to hand over Jesus to get the 30 pieces of silver the more money it
was a direct deposit to
Jesus. The conclusion of the story for Judas is tragic because he deeply regrets
what he has done after the “money is
in his account”, and but unfortunately, he does not find a way to make
a real withdrawal and repentance. In Judas actually returns the 30 pieces of
silver admitting to the chief priests I have betrayed innocent blood.
But, in this case, the instruction is
that repentance is more than just a material “payback” or returning of the
money. Judas could have avoided further
trouble if had come all the way back to his Lord and Savior.
It’s not easy to admit you are wrong,
to have your wrongdoing exposed to others.
Judas was not the only apostle in the
wrong. Peter and the others denied or doubted or departed from in other ways. Yet,
they also – in the end – repented and were forgiven because they stuck together
and with Christ. There is hope for sinners!
We can be forgiven if we stick
together and with God. This is where we are headed, where we are meant to go.
I also suggest we all need to remember that our prayers for someone's
soul are always beneficial, no matter how much despair or darkness we think the
other person is in or was in.
Only God looks into the heart.
[_05_] A few months ago, I was driving on Roseland Avenue and approaching Bloomfield Avenue at a busy intersection in Caldwell, not far from St. Aloysius Church in Caldwell.
As I approached the intersection, I
noticed cars slowing down and I figured that I could continue to maintain my
speed and keep going if I changed lanes, but this also meant that I was going
to have jump in front of another driver.
In my momentary haste, I did change
lanes, jump out in front of the other driver and even made it through the
intersection quite safely as did the other drive who was absolutely irate and
raising his voice at me.
I knew I was in the wrong. I had broken
the rules. I had “betrayed” the other driver. Where was I going?
That was the question I really had to
ask myself. Was it really worth it for me to save 2 minutes just to rush
through an intersection, do something dangerous just in order to “get going.”
[_06_] Have you ever heard the expression “follow
the money” which is one used to express a method by which we can uncover
corruption and vice and sinfulness by examining who is paying whom financially.
It's
an expression that comes from the 1970s from a U.S. Presidential Election
scandal known as Watergate - with Richard Nixon, in which there were cover ups
and betrayals and payments of money back and forth in an election campaign.
The police and politicians who were
investigating used the phrase “FTM” to figure out who the wrongdoers were.
Follow the money,
All we can really know for sure is that Judas
Iscariot was following the money. But in the end, Judas was not the only one
motivated by material concerns. Peter, who denies Jesus three times in order to
save himself from getting arrested Peter with following the money. The other
disciples who also didn't want to get caught, didn't want to get caught up or
arrested. They escaped, they were following the money in order to stay safe.
And sometimes I am guilty of this. I have
done things in order to be more comfortable. When I changed lanes suddenly on
Roseland Avenue and went through the intersection – fortunately safely – in
order to get a jump on things, I was not
actually getting paid to do this… but I was listening to a voice saying …”time
is money”.
So, if I save time, I save money.
Follow the money.
I’ve said said things in order to be more
comfortable or to get in with the in crowd. I follow the money
Or perhaps I've avoided saying something
because I want to get in with the right crowd or be more comfortable. I follow the money.
Sometimes we are even tempted to be
dishonest. Taking what belongs to another, relying on someone else’s work or
homework or test to complete our own work.
We follow the money rather than a method disciplined of studying.
The question after all of this is not whether
or not we have betrayed Christ. I have betrayed him by what I have done and
what I have failed to do. The question is not whether or not I am a sinner, but
whether or not I am a repentant sinner and willing to come out in the open, to
return to the confessional.
The story of Judas is instructive to us not
so that we can avoid getting caught, but to know that we are all caught up in
something that requires our repentance and where God’s grace is going to help
us to get going.
[_07_] Many years ago, I was told how my grandmother and her sister who were teenagers willingly left their home in the 1920s in Ireland, to come to the United States. They were not runaways. But they were immigrants. And they lived with relatives in New York City. They got here by traveling on the ocean, and they were as we say, fresh off the boat.
I was fascinated and impressed by their
perseverance, by their bravery and asked my grandmother for more details, I
begged my grandmother for more details of which you simply summarize, not by
giving me past history, but telling me of the true present. I was asking
because in a sense, I wanted to follow the money. I wanted to know where she had gone how she
got there.
Recently, one of my relatives visited my
grandmother’s original hometown and found out that there used to be a railway
station, and train that she would have traveled on. The train is not there
anymore, that was very interesting to me as a detail, because I want to follow
the money all the way back into the past.
So, I asked my grandmother for more details…
But my grandmother did not want to follow the
money that way.
I was interested in knowing what she had to
do in order to save, survive, succeed.
All my
grandmother would tell me was this: “if I had not come here, you would not be
here. In other words, James Ferry that's, that's how your life began before you
were born even before your parents were born, because I came here.”
But we are also here. I'm not here just because of my grandmother. We and you are not here just because of your parents. We're here because Jesus came before us. Because he gave us life for us. He is our treasure. Don't follow the money. Follow him. Where your treasure is there, you heart will be there. That’s where we are going. [_fin_]
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